Abstract:

Teachers face challenges to teach students with ASD /Autistic Spectrum Disorder/ within inclusive classroom settings. Following the contemporary directions laid by international, European and national policies and principles to use Information and Communication Technologies /ICT/ for inclusion, an innovative game-based learning environment has been developed to incorporate artificial intelligence /AI/ and an educational application for touchscreen mobile devices. The core of the environment is a multi-agent system that includes two types of assistants, implemented as intelligent agents. The intelligent software agents foster the learning process for both students and teachers.
The purpose of this publication is to describe and justify software design and architecture, games and artificial intelligence implementation, addressed to support students with ASD. The literature review and application analysis lead to the conclusion that some good examples already exist but at the same time a need was registered for developing and implementing a digital educational application for ASD students in Bulgarian in the following domains – science, object and phenomena, ecology and health. A prototype mobile application named “Play and Learn” has been released and it is targeted for differentiation, personalization and additional support for students with special educational needs in an inclusive classroom setting. The aim of the application is to develop and improve skills like inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility by explicitly connecting these skills to educational games and letting students play. Executive Function (EF) skills include exhibiting self-control, staying focused amid distractions, and flexibly solving problems in order to manage and complete tasks. These skills are a set of mental tools used to manage tasks and regulate one’s thinking to achieve goals. Executive function and self-regulation skills provide substantial supports for learning and development. The project subsumes games activities targeting executive function skills such as planning, organization, task initiation, time management, following directions, sequencing, working memory, attention, taking turns, flexibility and perseverance. The target population includes children between 2 to 12 years of age with ASD and some other conditions that may prevent students from learning in inclusive educational settings. In order to benefit from the motivational potential of the games we used a “gamification” approach. The application design consists of various games for students and information for parents and teachers.
Тhe project implementation results are used to update the courses taught by the authors in lectures in Artificial Intelligence and Software Technologies. Thе outcomes promote design and implementation of educational apps supporting inclusive classroom environment.

Keywords:

Artificial Intelligence, educational app, inclusive education, ASD students.